Clayton sheepishly looks at the others, "I can't say I've used something like this before." He shrugs and looks clumsy holding it, "Yeah, this won't work."
He was a thug, he never had any real training with weapons.
I was thinking more like Grumbles actually.
After organizing your gear, you head down to the mess hall, which you now know contains the entrance to the ancient ruins below the keep. The door to the hall is sealed tight with a sturdy padlock, but the key you found with Vos unlocks it and it swings open easily to reveal the room.
The flagstone tiles of the mess hall have all been pulled up and lie stacked against the walls. The room has been completely excavated, and picks and shovels still lie scattered about. The digging has unearthed an old circular staircase made of a lighter stone than the rest of the keep.
The staircase begins at the bottom of a seven-foot-deep pit accessed accessed by a short ladder, and leads down into darkness.
Grumbles takes the bastard sword... he's used to dual weapons but this blade had a comfortable heft to it.
"I have no problem with the darkness. I can lead the way if you want to. For those who have more difficulty, take this." Elduin draws an arrow from his quiver and makes the tip of it glow bright like a torch.
Then he begins to descend the staircase carefully and silently.
"Works for me. I've got your back, Elduin."
Stochelo draws his rapier and takes up position behind the half-elf.
The brawler handed the sword to Grumbles, "It's all yours." Giving a grin he marched until he saw the darkness. "I have myself an ioun torch, can't say how I got one, it was one of my less proud moments but its done its job admirably." He lets the stone fly out around him, lighting the area like a torch.
"I can go down if you'd like, if someone or something will catch me off guard..." Before he has a chance to finish he sees the elf climb down, with a sigh he follows.
Silas casually steps off the edge of the pit and floats silently down to the top of the excavated staircase below, to follow the others.
A gruesome sight meet you as you descend.
The circular staircase is clogged with numerous human and hobgoblin
bodies. Near the top lie the remains of three charred humans, apparently the victims of a magical trap. Below them lies a decapitated human, and a few feet farther, the bodies of four petrified hobgoblins.
As you near the bottom, you hear something that sounds like singing and the stomps of heavy boots.
"Hey, you guys hear that? Singing of some kind, I think."
"I can hear it clearly. It does sound like the fey language, but I don't speak it."
Seeing the corpses, Silas' eyes flash as he scans the stairs and remains for magical auras.
As the sound of singing reaches his ears, the Tiefling furrows his brow. Not at all what I was expecting.
With Elduin in the lead, you reach the bottom to find a semicircular room drenched in blood. Detached body parts of both hobgoblins and humans lie strewn about amid fragments of ancient furniture and half-dried pools of blood, and broad spatters of blood decorate the walls.To the south a large, beige stone door without handles appears to be the only other way out.
Dancing among the cut-up body parts in this room, you spot a miniscule figure with a grey beard clad in simple woodland clothing and heavy metal boots. As regular intervals, he swings a large scythe to further cut up the mangled remains and dips his little red felt hat in their blood.
Without pausing his singing and dancing, he cajoles you to take part in his orgiastic massacre.
"From the language and the looks of it, some sort of fey creature, I presume, but I've never seen this one or heard from it." Elduin explains in a whisper, when turning his head around to the others. He then shurgs his shoulders about what to do next. The creature seems not hostile.
Stochelo half heartedly stabs his rapier into a corpse nearby and watches the little maniac closely.
Without breaking his stride, the creature regards Stochelo’s greeting and stab with visible displeasure.
Clayton hears the sing song noise as he descends but has no idea what it could be. Fortunately Stochelo begins talking in the same unfamiliar language so the brawler gains some semblance of normalcy in the bloodsoaked basement.
It is only when he sees the bearded fey that he realizes what it is.
He shifts in place, and slowly starts to count the cold iron wedges he sticks in his handwraps, hoping they're all in place should a battle break out.
The thug quietly whispers to Elduin. "Yeah, it's a redcap buddy. Keep cool."
What the hell is a redcap?
Seeing the source of the singing and dancing is a little deranged psychopath with a large scythe, surrounded in a room full of gore and body parts, Silas immediately speaks a single word in Shadowtongue. Unseen by anyone, a pearl in his spell component pouch swirls and pulses, causing arcane formulas to reform in Silas' mind.
Elduin observes the red cap while circling it with as much distance as possible. If he can get to the other side of the room, he'll leave it and wave to the others.
When the group does not join the gory dance, the redcap flies into a fury.
"Dance or die!!" He shireks and swings hid scythe with an ease that does not seem possible considering how large the weapon is compared to him.
UPDATED MAP (home made for this level, so not as pretty.)
Stochelo: 23
Redcap: 22
Elduin: 19
Grumbles: 14
Silas: 6
Clayton: 3
Stochelo steps forward and concentrates for a moment, using his arcane pool to recall a shocking grasp spell.
"I mean, this was only going to end in bloodshed anyways, right?"
"Don't run off! Figbottom saw you first, so he gets to chop you up." the redcap shouts at Elduin and heads off his attempt to leave the room with a charge.
Fortunately for the young woodland protector, the furious fey is too agitated to angle his swing effectively and the blade scrapes off Elduin's armor.
Stochelo: 23
Redcap: 22
Elduin: 19
Grumbles: 14
Silas: 6
Clayton: 3
The striker goes in and then suddenly turns on a dime, shifting his weight in the process.
He fist spins out using the momentum of his turn.
"wouh! Careful there. That thing could hurt people." Elduin responds as he dodges the scythe. He steps 5 feet in flanking position, while drawing his cold iron dagger. He goes into a defensive position and lets the other do the work.
Cold iron Gladius... a useful bit of kit, he thinks as he draws his blade and moves to join in the group around the Fey...
for
The blow is wide and useless.
Silas levitates up to the ceiling before attempting to get the little menace to drop his weapon. Making a stabbing motion with his finger while speaking arcane words, the Redcap feels a needle of cold, sharp pain in his chest...
Clayton moves in and manages to catch the redcap between himself and Elduin.
His feint pays off and he manages to slam his cold iron hand wraps into the redcap's exposed side, cracking ribs and bruising vital organs.
Then Silas unleashed his shadow magic.
The spell sends the raving fey crashing to the blood stained floor, but he manages to retain his grip on the deadly scythe.
Stochelo steps over to the prone fey and drives his blade down at him.
"Creepy little fellow, why did you have to get all slice happy with us?"
Sparks travel down the length of the rapier as he attacks, using the magic he so recently recalled in his strike.
to hit, for damage and damage
The ordinary steel of Stochelo's rapier does not appear to harm the redcap at all, but the electricity from the spell burn large charred patches into it's flesh. But his fey magic begins to heal them at once.
Shrieking and not even attempting to rise, the fey twists on the ground attempting to slash Stochelo's legs out from under him, while aiming a kick from his metal boots at Clayton's knee.
Stochelo: 23
Redcap: 22
Elduin: 19
Grumbles: 14
Silas: 6
Clayton: 3
Elduin keeps harassing the fey with his dagger.
Grumbles stabs again with his cold iron Gladius...
for
Looking down on the fight from just below the ceiling, Silas casts again, this time targeting the scythe directly. After casting his spell, a sheen of grease begins to spread upon the deadly weapon...
Hopping, he drops a couple fists down on the redcap.
One of the fists goes wide, but the other looks to possibly be closer.
"Well, that slice looked quite a bit too close for comfort! It seems like cold iron is what everyone's using, so have a bit of dagger fun, monster."
Stochelo draws his cold iron dagger and steps up to plunge the blade into the fey on the ground, remaining as guarded as he can as he stabs.
to hit, for damage
With supernatural dexterity, the redcap maintains his grip on his weapon.
Despite the redcap's exposed position, only Clayton manages to land a single solid blow, the cold iron biting hard. Still on the ground, the redcap retaliates against the brawler with blade and boot, but to no avail.
Stochelo: 23
Redcap: 22
Elduin: 19
Grumbles: 14
Silas: 6
Clayton: 3
The ease with which the Redcap shook off his spell causes Silas to sigh. Fine then. If this is how it has to be, he mutters as he draws his wand and sends a bolt of pure force streaking into the evil Fey...
Elduin keeps harassing the fey with his dagger. With the redcap being on the ground, he looses some of his defense to get a better advantage.
for damage
"This little bugger just won't stay still for half a second, will he?"
Seeing the attacks from the redcap on the floor, he swerves out of the way.
"You killed these folks, but I'm not blaming you, it's in your nature."
Using the exposure granted by the others he is able to strike at weak points, though the challenge isn't really there.
With each stinging stab of cold iron and searing magical force, the redcap's shrieks of fury and pain become more and more hysterical, until Clayton steps in and delivers a final skull-shattering blow.
An ire calm falls on the room, and the only sound that can be heard are your own quickend breaths as the redcap's blood oozes from his broken body to mix with that of his victim's on the stone floor.
Clayton looks at the floor and the blood all over him, "I never want my kid to ever see me like this; but I do want to see them again so I have to be like this. Funny problem right?"
Moving toward the bodies he glances and tries to find anything of note among them to give some information about who they are and what happened.
"I don't have any kids yet, but I know what you mean." Elduin tries to clean himself up a little, too, while also sifting through the redcap's and the other remains.
"I get you, Clayton. Violence and war are what we're dealing with, hopefully for peace and justice in the future. This kind of slaughter, mindless killing and destruction, this is what we should be fighting against. "
Stochelo touches a pearl in his pouch, regaining his shock spell again, before sheathing both short and long blades.
Silas stays high above the blood and gore as his eyes flash with magical sight...
Your search and magical detection reveals nothing of interest or value. Whatever gear the redcap's victims may have had has been hacked to pieces or ruined by the blood.